Letters: No on Measure A, Part 3

North Beach is awesome! We have a nice beach with plenty of parking where you can drive right up to the beach. Your beach stuff, stroller, picnic stuff, all is just a few steps from your car to the beach. It’s the easiest beach access in town!

Sure, it’s a bit run-down. But it’s a fixer-upper, not a teardown. Updated landscaping and more trees would do the trick.

Playa del Norte will take away the easy beach access and plentiful parking right at the water.

I’m definitely not against development. A lot of good and smart people, like my friend Marvin Dennis, have put a lot of time into the Playa del Norte project. It’s a very nice project and I hate to oppose it. But to get it, we have to give up one of San Clemente’s best assets. It’s just not worth it.

So many times, I meet a friend at North Beach to walk the trail. We would take our young kids to the playground. Our church does baptisms, and even the wheelchair-bound can get to the beach easily. It’s quick and easy to park right at the water. That will go away if Playa del Norte is built.

North Beach does have a problem, but Playa del Norte is not the solution. The problem is the Miramar (Theater). How tragic to destroy the best part about North Beach, the easy plentiful parking, when it won’t even solve the main black eye, the Miramar. I like Larry Corwin’s idea for the city to buy the Miramar. Or let’s approve a reasonable project for the Miramar that keeps the tower and some of the facade but allows the theater and bowling alley to be replaced. There have been good proposals brought to the city by Miramar owners in recent years. We need to be fair and approve the next reasonable one. Or the city needs to buy it and renovate it, as Mr. Corwin suggests.

In the meantime, the City Council can direct code enforcement to require the Miramar to be properly landscaped and maintained. It’s not fair to all the residents of San Clemente to have this important gateway looking so run-down. The city got the ball rolling with the new sidewalks, which look great! Now, require the Miramar owner to paint and landscape. If the law doesn’t allow that, pass a law that does. Even offer the owner some funding, such as the idle beach parking money. Or use that money to buy the Miramar and create a great public venue!

Sometimes the best action is no action. We don’t know a good thing until it’s gone. Let’s not make that mistake here. Vote no on A. God bless you all!

Ian DyerSan Clemente

It would be nice if residents could express their opinions about North Beach without having signs stolen or defaced. In our area of San Clemente, 12 "No on Measure A" signs on four properties have been stolen, vandalized or defaced with obscenities. "Yes on Measure A" signs have remained untouched.

If those determined to crush opposition to Measure A are that unprincipled, I wonder what they might do if they succeed in getting the measure passed.

Roger JohnsonSan Clemente

I just wanted to set the record straight on an eminent domain issue the "Yes on A" camp is now trying to invent, basically out of thin air, and without regard for the truth. In particular, the Orange County Realtors have been sending e-mails saying that "No on A's" eminent domain claims are false.

In case you haven't yet gotten to the bottom of this blatantly false assertion, the claim is based on the vacant lot between Ichibiri and Kaylani, which as you will recall was previously an Italian restaurant until floodwaters washed it away in the 1990s. That property was apparently acquired through an inverse condemnation process, apparently at the request of the owner, since the owner couldn't do anything further with it. But that vacant lot has nothing to do the triangle area that was acquired by eminent domain in 1970.

This assertion by the "yes" side, referring to a completely different parcel and a transaction that occurred two decades later, is a blatant attempt to subvert this election and, in my mind, is a very sorry state of affairs. The "Yes on A" folks who provided the Realtors with this information must certainly have known it was false, and the Realtors should never have made the assertions without checking the facts.

Kevin Daehnke

San Clemente

I am urging all San Clemente voters to vote no on Measure A, if for no other reason than to make a statement against the continuous abuse of eminent domain. The Supreme Court upheld eminent domain because it was to be used for the good of the public (meaning roads, parking lots, parks and the like), and when the city used eminent domain to obtain the North Beach property, they were in "compliance."

Unfortunately, it now appears the city deems revenue to be of more importance than the current use, which is solely for public benefit. If my argument sounds trivial to you, imagine if you owned property that you bought with the intention of supplementing your retirement income and the city "bought" it from you under duress so they could then sell to a large-box store that would bring development fees and tax revenue. That is what's happening everywhere, and now we have it in North Beach – granted, after a delay.

But wait, that's not all that's wrong with this: Based on the lease/option-to-purchase terms of the agreement between LAB and the city, it's gone a step further in that it is nothing more than privatizing gains and socializing losses (they call it a partnership). There is no better time than now for people to stand up to government and their agencies and say no more abuse.

It is my hope that Gov. Brown succeeds in eliminating the redevelopment agencies because that alone should go a long way in stopping this land-grabbing practice. If developers want to create a project, they should have to negotiate directly with the private landowner and fund it entirely by themselves. That's the real free-market system, where friends in high places are of no value when seeking funding and/or favors.

Greg Zeboray

San Clemente

The LAB project at Playa del Norte is 10 steps back for dogs and dog lovers. Currently the public owns and controls this beachfront access to the Coastal Trail. Dog lovers have enjoyed simple and convenient access to the Coastal Trail and are currently welcome to walk their dogs on a leash from North Beach for miles along the coast.

The LAB project will take over ownership and control of this level beach access, replacing it with a privately owned shopping complex, and this public beach access will no longer exist. Your freedom and public right of access will be seriously impaired, and the same goes for your pooch.

The shopping mall will have a gated entrance with hours of operation, and beach visitors will have to navigate through the multilevel project to get to the beach side. Once there, the only way down is a cascade of privately owned stairs spanning a 17-foot vertical drop to the beach (equal to 34 steps, each 6 inches high).

The LAB will have the authority to restrict access to dogs as well as beach users carrying surfboards, beach gear, baby strollers and anything else they may see as a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Expect to see signs posted requiring beach users to hike around the perimeter of the project, a distance of over two football fields, to get to the entrance to the beach trail.

LAB promoters are often seen using cute dogs as props dressed in "Yes on A" vests to try to get dog lovers to vote for the project. Do not be misled. The LAB project will seriously harm the public right of access as well as canine access to the public beach trail.

View the Playa del Norte stairs on the LAB architectural package and the 17-foot vertical drop to the beach on the PDN site plan posted at northbeachgreenalternative.com.

Protect animal rights. Vote no on Measure A!

Vonne Barnes

San Clemente

An open letter to a Measure A supporter:

I'm writing this out of complete love and respect for you and your opinions and because, as a friend with whose passionate public stands I generally resonate wholeheartedly, I hope you'll help me understand your position on Measure A. Yours was one name I would not have predicted would be listed on the recent pro-A mailing.

Perhaps you feel about the "No on A" mailings the same way I feel about the pro-A ones. This flier sums it up for me: "Parents, educators, surfers, homeowners ... all support Measure A." My wife, as an educator, was particularly incensed by this intentionally misleading statement; as a parent and homeowner – and friend of young parents and homeowners who park their cars right at North Beach to enjoy the beach trail, Ole Hanson Beach Club pool and park area, and the beach itself – I'm outraged, too.

"Measure A will bring 40 percent more beach parking." I guess you can put a sign on a parking structure a half-mile walk from the beach and call it "beach parking," but the Playa del Norte footprint would really be stamping out the genuine beach parking spaces, wouldn't it?

"If Measure A passes, it will help clean up the coastline." What? By expanding urban sprawl to the coastline?

"Measure A will bring new ... open space to North Beach." Someone's vision of open space is diametrically opposed to mine. Stand and look out at the ocean from North Beach now; then imagine standing in the same spot and looking toward the ocean after Playa del Norte is built; which space looks more open?

Our mayor says she's "proud to be voting yes on Measure A." Is she proud of this mailing, which, in my mind, insults the intelligence of everyone it's sent to (as well as that of everyone who signed on to it)? Her proud statement implies that she harbors no reservations about what would be lost to future generations of San Clementeans and visitors here if this beachside mall is built; I wonder if that's true.

This is a complex issue, my friend, and I admit it took me a long time to decide which side I wanted to support, so I don't in any way condemn the opinion of thoughtful people like you who support the development.

Perhaps you, better than anyone else on the pro-A roster, can help me understand how you made your choice so I don't feel so deep a sense of loss for my community if this mall is built.

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